The environment is everywhere.

It was disappointing to read the NY Times editorial on January 1 on drilling in the Marcellus shale.

Their take is that the state should ban gas drilling in the New York City watershed, in agreement with a study (discussed here) put out by the City’s Department of Environmental Protection. That’s fine, as far as it goes. However they miss some very important points that the City report covers, as exemplified in their way off-base contention in the editorial that

Environmentalists and city officials immediately cautioned that while carefully regulated drilling could proceed in other parts of the state with minimal environmental damage

Nothing could be further from the truth, and the City’s report gets into numerous sound technical reasons why other parts of the state ought to, and do, have serious concerns.